The Oldham family garden.

So I decided I wanted to plant a small garden because let's face it nothing beats a vine ripened tomatoes! The possibilities are endless, and surplus can be preserved to enjoy in the dead of winter when you can't find a decent tomato to save your life-lol.  First I had to clear space-I got lucky in that out side yard gets full sun for about 6-7 hours a day and it had sprinkler heads already there.  OK- so have my spot picked, but an ugly useless shrub is taking up valuable space.  Let me say here that bush was a pain in the you know what to get out.  Thanks Cynde for all your help-we did not have to enlist the help of the husbands-Yeah!

The above mentioned bush gone! OK-it took us two days and a few curse words to get that sucker out.

I've never been so happy to see bare dirt in all my life! Next to make rows and plant.

 Aren't they cute! They did not stay that way long.  Note the irrigation lines I ran from the sprinkler heads.  They work much better here as if you water from the top your plants will burn.  And it uses less water. So this is what they looked like about two weeks later.

 Now thanks to my neighbor Paul for the free turkey poop mulch they are growing fast.  This is a month later (that's a 6 foot fence) and fruit is setting nicely.  We had a weird two week cold spell that slowed the fruit down a bit, but they are doing well.

And this is the full garden.  I decided midway through the project to expand all the way down the side yard.  But most of that is the pumpkin & watermelons which love all the space. 

 Here are some of the fruits of my labor (literally-lol) beautiful strawberries! They were great on spinach salad with walnuts and balsamic vinaigrette, but even better in yummy jam!

Nice and chunky-Yum! I also have very nice crook neck squash and cucumbers. so far so good.  We'll see how the melons do. Oddly the only plants that are struggling are my peas???? Go figure? I think I got a bad packet of seeds.  I have never seen peas not grow? You would think that if kindergarteners can do it with paper towels and Dixie cups that a well irrigated richly mulch garden would be fail proof.  We'll see, not holding my breath on those. At least frozen peas are cheap-lol.